At his peak, Seaman was regarded as one of the best goalkeepers in the world during the 1990s, earning praise from other goalkeepers such as Sepp Maier and Francesco Toldo. A tall and well–rounded keeper, with a large frame, he was known for his bravery, quick reflexes, agility, and excellent positional sense, as well as his reliable handling and ability to judge the ball, which allowed him to come out and collect crosses and command his area effectively, earning him the nickname "safe hands" in the media; although he was not particularly flashy in his style of goalkeeping, he was regarded as an efficient and generally reliable goalkeeper, who was known for his cool demeanour, authoritative presence, and calm composure in goal, as well as his leadership and ability to organise his back–line, which inspired a sense of confidence in his teammates. He was also adept at stopping penalties. However, despite his ability in his prime, and his overall longevity, he was also known for being inconsistent and prone to errors on occasion, in particular in his later career, following a series of injuries, and also due to his own advancing age, which ultimately led to his physical decline and a series of less convincing performances; he also frequently struggled to deal with long–range shots throughout his career. In 2014, when recounting his famous lobbed goal against Seaman in the 1995 Cup Winners' Cup final, Nayim stated that his attempt was premidated, as during his time in England, he came to learn that Arsenal usually played with a high defensive line, with Seaman essentially acting as a sweeper-keeper due to his tendency to stay off his line. In 2006, The Irish Times described Seaman as a "serial choker," due to several high-profile errors he committed in key matches, in particular at international level, and described him as one of several unreliable keepers that played for England since the end of the "tradition of solid goalkeeping which seemed unbreakable through the era of Banks, Clemence, Shilton, etc.", a notion with which Sriram Ilango of Bleacher Report concurred in 2009. In 2018, Eurosport noted that: "Since the retirement of Peter Shilton, the position of England's goalkeeper has claimed plenty of casualties. Even the most stable of its occupants, David Seaman, will be remembered for the embarrassment caused when Ronaldinho sent a free-kick floating over his head at the 2002 World Cup." Moreover, while Seaman possessed a deep goal kick and a long throw, which suited Arsenal's quick counter–attacking style of play under manager Arsène Wenger, he was not particularly adept with the ball at his feet, and his distribution was also not always reliable; as such he preferred to clear ball away when receiving back–passes, rather than attempting to play it out from the back. Considered to be one of the greatest English goalkeepers of all time, as well as one of the best shot-stoppers in Premier League and English football history, he placed second in the IFFHS World's Best Goalkeeper of the Year award in 1996, behind Andreas Köpke, while he placed 32nd, alongside Enrico Albertosi, in the European Keeper of the Century vote, which was organised by the same organisation, the fourth–highest ranked English goalkeeper. In 2013, James McNicholas of Bleacher Report described Seaman as: "the greatest goalkeeper in Arsenal's history." Seaman is left-handed, but threw the ball with his right arm, and also kicked with his right foot. In addition to his goalkeeping ability, Seaman was also a highly recognisable figure on the pitch due to his moustache and the ponytail hairstyle he wore for part of his career.
